Picture it — Bologna, Italy, December 2011. You’re making your way downtown, walking fast, faces pass and you’re auto show bound. You push past the crowds that used to swarm auto shows, and walk up to the Fiat booth. You spot the most powerful version of the updated Punto hatchback, and notice something unusual. No, not the unique matte yellow paint with metal flake in it, though that does look nice. Do those seats say “born this way”? They sure do. Fiat produced a “Born This Way” special edition of its then-new Punto that it insisted wasn’t inspired by Lady Gaga’s impregnable anthem “Born This Way,” which was conveniently released earlier that year.
Fiat claimed that its Punto Born This Way concept was created by the Fiat Style Center to showcase the new Punto’s decisive, passionate and magnetic spirit. Sure, Fiat. Nobody would want to capitalize on the pop star’s feel-good anthem of the year, arguably of the decade. Articles written about the Punto Born This Way concept from 2011 stress that the special edition was not associated with Lady Gaga, though they cited the ironic timing of the two uses of the phrase.
It had performance, power, and polarizing style
The Fiat Punto Born This Way show car featured the most powerful engine that Fiat had planned for the Punto at the time of reveal, a 1.4-liter MultiAir turbo four that produced 135 horsepower and about 152 pound-feet of torque. That’s not particularly polarizing, but its details sure were. The Born This Way special edition was shroud in a bespoke combination of Fiat’s “to touch” matte yellow paint that also contained metal flake to make it sparkle. It also had a contrasting gloss black roof, door handles, and 17-inch alloy wheels as well as a custom B-pillar design.
The real Born This Way influence is apparent on the show car’s interior where parts of the dashboard and the center portion of the seat upholstery were emblazoned with “Born This Way” messaging in distressed yellow and gray block letters. Fiat called it “InkLeather” upholstery and justifies its distressed appearance as a “lived-in” effect. Regardless of its justification, the pattern also featured words including provocative, irreverent, open minded, daring, and iconic.
Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” was an anthem encouraging radical self-acceptance, regardless of your perceived flaws and/or unique traits. Details about the 2011 Fiat Punto Born This Way edition are slim, but it doesn’t look like it ever made its way to production. I’m not mad that it didn’t get produced; while I like the paint color and the ‘high performance’ powertrain, the interior is a bit gauche. I wonder what known automotive enthusiast Lady Gaga thinks about it.
